3 Second Hole Shot? No Way!

The first trip out in the new rig was an adventure. It launched pretty easy for a 20 foot 9 inch boat. I unhooked it, and stepped off the trailer tongue onto the boat to idle over to the dock. I quickly realized I’d left the keys in the truck. Oops. No problem. The trolling motor would do the trick. Yeah, NOPE! No trolling motor. Everything looked good, but not even a hint of spin. Yes, I checked the switch on the side.

Fortunately I had tossed a paddle in the boat, and I paddled. I hadn’t drifted to far, and the poor guy waiting for me to get my truck off the ramp so he could launch was nice about it. After pulling the boat up on the beach as far as I could (I sure didn’t want to have to go swim after it) I pulled my truck off the ramp. I still didn’t see anything wrong with the trolling motor setup, but without a meter there wasn’t really much I could do, but wiggle the wires and thump on the circuit breaker.

Finally I headed out, just to run the boat a little. Wow! Maybe its just been so long since I ran a full size bass boat, but this thing handles really well. I counted off a hole shot, and in my mind it was quicker than I thought, so I shot this video clip. It was almost as quick as it was in my head.  (more below video)

After that run I headed back to the ramp.  I didn’t have any dock lines, but I’d at least had the thought to grab a short scrap of rope out of the truck.  It was a little bit to tie off, but then it loaded up a lot easier than I expected.

Back at the shop all three trolling motor batteries were dead.  2.9 volts across all three.  1 volt or less on each battery.  I don’t think there is much chance of recovering those.  I guess I’m off to the store to spend way more money than I want to on some new batteries.  To be fair Dave did tell me those batteries were over two years old.  The thing is the last time the boat was out I was with him, and the batteries were fine.  Oh, well.  Nobody’s fault, except mine for not checking them before I headed out.

I thought about doing a little drifting and fishing, but I didn’t want to turn the motor off and risk having to paddle ALLLLL the way back with no trolling motor.  Next time.

No, it wasn’t bad luck from throwing the net in the boat first.  I actually put rods, a paddle and my tackle bag in the boat before I put the net in.  I almost forgot to put the net in at all.